Category: engagement

The Block launches CaravansofGold.org to support teaching and learning on medieval Africa

Bynublockmuseum November 11, 2019 0 Comments
The Block Museum of Art announces the launch of Caravansofgold.org, a companion site to museum’s 2019 exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa. The exhibition is currently on view at Toronto's Aga Khan Museum and will travel to the Smithsonian's National Museum of African Art in 2020. Caravans of Gold is the first major...

Wattz Up! Yollocalli’s Pop Up Youth Radio broadcasts from The Block Museum

Bynublockmuseum October 31, 2019 0 Comments
On September 28, 2019 members of Pop Up Youth Radio, a project of Yollocalli Arts Reach, transformed The Block Museum lobby into an on-air studio, broadcasting live from the Pop America 1965-1975 exhibition opening. Wattz Up! is a weekly radio show on WLPN 105.5 FM Lumpen Radio.  Broadcast live from Studio Y in Little Village, Chicago on Saturdays from 12-2pm, the program features...

The Sounds of Pop América: Tune in to exhibition Spotify playlist

Bynublockmuseum October 15, 2019 0 Comments
The exhibition Pop America, 1965-1975 on view at The Block Museum of Art from September 21, 2019 to December 8, 2019 is is the first exhibition to unify Latin American and Latinx expressions of Pop and explore how artists working across the hemisphere embraced its bold and colorful imagery, references to mass culture, and representations of everyday objects, signs, and symbols. The exhibition...

How Gold Shaped the World: Anthropologists, historians, and scientists on the enduring power of gold [Video]

Bynublockmuseum August 12, 2019 0 Comments
Gold is one of the rarest and most malleable minerals, qualities that have contributed to its enduring value across time and place. Gold has been shaped by artists; its extraction has altered landscapes, and its discovery has raised nations. The allure of gold is entwined with culture and economies, politics and religion, power and value. On May 9, 2019 The Block Museum of Art's Associate...

From the Field: International archaeologists share their discoveries with Northwestern students and local schools [Video]

Bynublockmuseum July 15, 2019 0 Comments
On April 24, 2019, a panel of six international archaeologists gathered at The Block Museum of Art to discuss their research and contributions to the field of archaeology. This unique event offered an insider's perspective on the scholars recent findings in Mali, Morocco, and Nigeria. Titled "From the Field: International Archaeologists in Conversation" the event was presented in conjunction with...

Artist-at-Large Dario Robleto discusses ethics with experts across fields [Video]

Bynublockmuseum May 22, 2019 0 Comments
Artist Dario Robleto returned to Evanston this spring to continue his ongoing collaboration as Northwestern's inaugural Artist-at-Large, hosted by the McCormick School of Engineering and Applied Science and The Block Museum of Art. The Artist-at-Large Program brings contemporary artists to campus for in-depth exchanges with faculty and students; the Program joins other activities organized by...

Fred Wilson explores Afro Turk identities in “Afro Kismet” [Video]

Bynublockmuseum May 6, 2019 0 Comments
Internationally acclaimed artist and MacArthur Fellow Fred Wilson addressed audiences at The Block on April 16, 2019. In his talk, Wilson shared insights into his work Afro Kismet— resonant with themes of migration and history explored in the exhibition Caravans of Gold, Fragments in Time: Art, Culture, and Exchange across Medieval Saharan Africa. Throughout his career, Wilson has challenged...

Performers activate Isaac Julien’s “The Leopard (Western Union: Small Boats)”

Bynublockmuseum April 24, 2019 0 Comments
On April 4, a group curated by D. Soyini Madison, Professor of Performance Studies, responded to Isaac Julien's The Leopard and to our current moment through dance and movement. Audiences gathered in The Block galleries to witness the performance, which transpired in tandem with a screening of Julien's work. Beginning with a short reading of original verse, the group activated space in the...

Ellen Lupton on design and innovation at the Goldsholl studio [Video]

Bynublockmuseum April 22, 2019 0 Comments
This past October writer, curator, and graphic designer Ellen Lupton shared her perspective on design at the Goldsholl studio, the focus of the 2018 Block exhibition Up is Down: Mid-Century Experiments in Advertising and Film at the Goldsholl Studio.  In the 1950s and '60s, the Goldsholl design firm’s creative experiments with light and media found their ways to lucrative commercials and...

Policy experts discuss urgent issues of migration at Block Museum [Video]

Bynublockmuseum April 17, 2019 0 Comments
As explored in the Block Museum 2019 exhibitions Caravans of Gold and The Leopard (Western Union Small Boats), nations around the world have long been shaped by migration. On February 28, 2019 the museum hosted a panel to examine urgent issues of migration taking place in the US, Chicago, and Evanston. Drawing upon a range of perspectives, the panel considered the ethics of witnessing,...